Dr Colin Martin Scholarship

Oecusse municipality is the most disadvantaged municipality of Timor- Leste. It has few health staff trained in leprosy. This is an opportunity for you to help develop the capacity of the Timor-Leste health system.

We begin a new five-year leprosy transmission project in Oecusse Municipality, Timor-Leste in July 2024. Many of the government health staff in Timor-Leste have very little experience and/or training in leprosy diagnosis and treatment.

This is an opportunity to help develop the capacity of the Timor-Leste health system. The immediate gain is that the most disadvantaged municipality of Timor-Leste will have well trained leprosy staff who will have significantly better leprosy training than other leprosy health staff in the system. For the project to operate at a more optimal level it will be important to ensure government health staff have training.

Negotiations have been made with Anandaban hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal to host 11 visitors. 10 of them being Timorese government health staff and one TLM doctor for a 2-week training program. Anandaban hospital is the premier hospital in Nepal offering leprosy diagnosis and treatment, including reconstructive surgery and research. The visit will be conducted in the first four months of the new project.

Government participants will be required to commit to at least one years’ service in Oecusse post training.

Supporting this project will provide training for ten government health staff from Oecusse health centres in leprosy diagnosis and treatment. It will enable Anandaban Hospital to provide a comprehensive and certificate short course in leprosy diagnosis and treatment.